Rahme: Face-Offs Not Only Concern For Syracuse; Cornell's Transition and OCC's Streak on the Line

A $13 million indoor football practice facility currently under construction on the campus of Syracuse University will offer relief next year for the Orange men’s lacrosse team in the form of a full-length field protected from the weather and immune to basketball season. In the meantime, John Desko’s team is slipping on thin ice.

“We’ve been in the Carrier Dome once for practice since our preseason scrimmages,” Desko said, referring to the facility being used almost exclusively for hoops, “and that was the day before the Maryland game so it wasn’t really a practice but a pregame warmup. We just haven’t been able to get on a full field with all the snow and cold.”

And that has prevented the team from getting the 10-on-10 work it so desperately needs in the clearing and riding game. While the team’s struggles at the face-off X remain under the microscope, critical breakdowns in clears and rides have been a pivotal factor in the team’s two-game losing streak, the most recent being Saturday night’s 17-12 loss at Virginia.

“I was talking to (UVa coach) Dom Starsia and he told me he was frustrated because their indoor field didn’t have (lacrosse) lines on it,” Desko said. “I was looking at him like he was crazy. I guess it’s all relative.”

The team’s lack of 10-on-10 practice time can be seen in these two critical but often overlooked lacrosse statistics: An SU team that traditionally forces more turnovers than it commits courtesy of its fierce ride has coughed it up 52 times in four games while getting only 41 in return, and a team that traditionally clears the ball successfully well above the 90 percent mark is at .833 (foes are .890) this season. Orange teams of the recent past have been able to offset their struggles at the X by winning the turnover and clearing battles. Losing them so far this season has exacerbated the face-off woes.

“Without a full field there is simply no chance to polish getting back on offense or defense,” Desko said. “You just can’t simulate it. It has been very frustrating. Next year it won’t matter if the indoor thing is in place. In the meantime .. ”

Equally frustrating to Desko is the lack of support senior face-off specialist Chris Daddio (.478; 44-for-92) has been getting from his wings where a few seasons ago players like Joel White and Kevin Drew dominated but is now an SU liability. That was obvious against the Cavs in a woeful 7-for-31 performance at the X that left a solid offensive effort by the Orange buried in its wake.

“We watched the film of the Virginia game and (senior LSM and face-off wing) Matt Harris had no groundballs,” Desko said. “None. We joked that Dom Starsia, who we watched rolling the ball back on the field a couple times after it went out of bounds, had more groundballs than Harris.”

Desko defended his senior captain by offering that Virginia’s Pat Harbeson and Joseph Lisicky were outstanding and that fear of Virginia’s fast break off the draw often forced him to keep a winger back to defend, making scrums for the ball a two-on-three affair. Yet, he is clearly displeased with the play of his wings so far.

“We came out of the game concerned about our face-off guy,” Desko said. “But we watched the film and he had his stick on a bunch of them and didn’t have any help. We need to be better on the wings.”

Desko said the plan for now is to stick with Daddio when the Orange (2-2) faces St John’s (2-2) at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Cobb County Lacrosse Classic in Georgia.

“In practice he dominates,” Desko said. “It’s so hard … we made mistakes last year by putting somebody in the game cold (when Daddio struggled). You have to get in rhythm. He’s not that bad at it and we have to get better at it.”

And, with or without a full field to practice on, Syracuse must get better at its clearing and riding game, as at .500 and 0-2 in the ACC it is suddenly slipping on thin ice.

Cornell in transitionHe was the right man at the right place in a tough time.

“I guess that’s a good way to put it,” Cornell interim head coach Matt Kerwick said as his Big Red prepared to face Virginia in a battle of unbeaten at noon Saturday at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca.

Kerwick had head coaching stints at Hobart and Jacksonville under his belt when he joined Ben DeLuca’s Big Red staff last season and directed an offense led by superstar Rob Pannell to 14.56 goals per game, No. 2 in the nation. Thus, Kerwick was the logical candidate to replace DeLuca when he was dismissed in the wake of a hazing incident that canceled fallball events at the Ivy League power.

“Having that head-coaching experience definitely made it a little easier,” Kerwick said. “I’ve been through a lot and seen a lot. It was a challenging fall for everybody, but now we’re right where we want to be.”

On a personal level Kerwick survived an emotional 12-8 opening victory over his alma mater, Hobart, in one of the sport’s oldest rivalries. The Big Red were tested mightily in that one and trailed in the waning minutes before a late barrage salvaged the victory. Cornell then reeled off three more victories, one in overtime at Michigan, to set up Saturday’s showdown with the rolling Cavs.

On paper, it appears to be a mismatch. Virginia returns a veteran team, while Cornell is clearly in transition. Even before the hazing incident and subsequent coaching change the Big Red faced the challenge of replacing 16 seniors, among them Pannell, who departed as the NCAA’s Division I career scoring leader (354 points).

“We knew we were going to have to rely on a lot of new faces,” Kerwick said. “Anytime you graduate that many players it’s going to be a challenge. But I wouldn’t say we’re young. We’re just new. These guys have been through practice for a couple of years and have been waiting for their opportunity. Now it’s their turn. With any great program that’s going to happen.”

Still, experience favors the Cavaliers. So does the fact that Ivy rules prevent its members from starting practice before Feb. 1, giving the visitors a big head start on preseason preparation and game experience (UVa is 6-0).

“We know it’s going to be a huge test for our guys,” Kerwick said. “It will be a good gauge as to where we are.”

It will also feature the end of one Pannell era and the start of another, as UVa sophomore James Pannell, Rob’s younger brother, is blossoming into a star attackman for the Cavs.

“He definitely took a long, hard look at Cornell,” Kerwick said. “I think he just wanted to make his own course and establish himself in his own way. Virginia is a great program, so you can’t second-guess that decision. He’s one of the best in the game right now.”

And as for the best statistically to ever play it?

“Rob’s going to be in town,” Kerwick said. “It will be fun for us to catch up.”

And interesting to see how far a Cornell team in transition has come with a new coach and a lot of new faces in the lineup.

The Yankees of JUCOChuck Wilbur has guided the Onondaga CC men’s lacrosse team to five consecutive junior-college national championships and 70 consecutive victories. He sports a career record of 189-15. He knows what such success breeds.

“It means you’re doing something right,” Wilbur said. “And it also means everyone is excited to play you. It’s like the Yankees or the Red Sox or any team that has had a lot of success. Everybody wants you to lose except the moms and dads of the players. We have a big bull’s-eye on our backs. That what makes it fun, though.”

Pardon Wilbur if he isn’t exactly having fun these days as his team prepares to face CCBC Essex at 1 p.m. Saturday on OCC’s turf field. The Baltimore area school is one of the few that annually fields the talent capable of challenging Wilbur’s Lazers.

“It’s a skating rink out there right now,” he said, describing the planned venue. “It’s plowed, but it’s frozen solid. We’re hoping it thaws out over the next several days because the (Carrier) Dome is not available due to monster trucks (Monster Jam).”

Wilbur said the bitterly cold winter weather this year has kept his team indoors all but “six or seven times,” which will make the Essex test even tougher than usual. So will another development.

“This is the youngest team I’ve ever had, probably by far,” Wilbur said. “Usually we have roughly a 50-50 split of sophomores and freshmen on the roster. Last season 35 of the 45 players on the roster were sophomores. We have only a handful of players returning with college experience. The lack of experience combined with the lack of full-field practices makes this our most challenging season in years.”

Wilbur knows such an observation will elicit little sympathy in the JUCO lacrosse world, which has been ruled by Onondaga seven times in the last eight years. Foes will point to the presence of All-America goalie Warren Hill, a star Wilbur calls “the best to ever come through here;” A-A face-off specialist Vaghn Harris, who proved he was much more than a FOGO by scoring seven points in a 25-7 opening victory over SUNY Delhi; and A-A midfielder Tim Barber out of West Genesee.

“It you’re going to be young it certainly helps to have established stars in goal and at the face-off X,” Wilbur admitted.

Yet, the close defense in front of Hill is entirely new, and superstars such as two-time JUCO offensive player of the year Randy Staats are gone. And Essex is on tap.

“In a perfect world we would have been outside more and would be playing a game like this later in the season,” Wilbur said, “but it will be good for us. It will be a good gauge. Essex, like always, is very talented. It will likely be our stiffest challenge of the entire regular season. Our kids are going to have to fight and scrape for everything they get this season.”

Yet, the Lazers are ranked No. 1 in the nation courtesy of the long victory streak and string of national titles.

“I guess that’s the way it is until someone beats you,” Wilbur said. “But we’re not a great Onondaga lacrosse team yet. We think we can be by the end of the season.”